Homecoming for Filewich

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This article was published 28/04/2025 (249 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On March 20, Kyler Filewich walked off the court in Lexington, Ky., confident but uncertain about his future in basketball.

The fifth-year senior had just played in what was concurrently the biggest and last game of his collegiate career, as Wofford College was ousted by the University of Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball championship tournament (also known as March Madness).

Now, all the Winnipeg product could do was wait for his phone to ring with an opportunity to play somewhere professionally.

“I was pretty confident I’d get a chance (to go pro), but you never know in those situations,” said Filewich.

“It could be your last game, like there’s no guarantee. So I felt a little bit of that going into all our conference tournament games and then March Madness, as well. Leave it all out there, because I’m not sure what’s going to happen next, even though I was pretty confident. But I’m super glad now that I do have the opportunity to keep playing.”

On Monday, Filewich signed his first professional contract with the Winnipeg Sea Bears in a deal that returns the 6-9, 250-pound centre to the city where it all started.

It’s a moment that has crossed his mind, but something he never seriously considered until the Sea Bears joined the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) in 2023.

“I followed the CEBL the first couple of years before the Sea Bears got in, and it was super cool. I was kind of waiting for a team to come to Winnipeg and, once that happened, I knew it was something that one day I’d want to be a part of, and I’m super glad it worked out,” he said.

Filewich’s return to Winnipeg has been in the works dating back to last summer when he met head coach and GM Mike Taylor and practised with the Sea Bears. The two sides stayed in touch, and Taylor reached out shortly after Wofford’s season ended, with serious intentions of bringing Filewich back home.

“Super exciting. It’s such a great community, great fans around here in Winnipeg,” Filewich said. “The opportunity to play in front of friends and family is something I’m super excited for, especially this being a year where Winnipeg is hosting the playoffs, it’s going to be a super exciting season. I’m looking forward to it, and I can’t wait to get back and get to work with the rest of the team.”

Filewich, a graduate of Vincent Massey Collegiate, was the top-ranked high school player in the province in 2018 and 2019 before being recruited south for college. He played his first two years at Southern Illinois, where he was named to the Missouri Valley Conference all-freshman team in his first season.

In 2022, he transferred to Wofford (South Carolina), where he would become the team’s unquestioned leader while helping the Terriers to their first appearance in the national tournament since 2019 after an MVP-calibre performance in the Southern Conference championship tournament this season.

Filewich averaged 11.7 points and 9.2 rebounds while starting all 35 contests in his final year.

The 23-year-old’s hard-nosed style fits what Taylor wants his team to be this summer: a bigger and more physically imposing squad in the paint. Winnipeg has also notably signed Simi Shittu, Jaylin Williams and Solomon Young in the frontcourt.

“Just doing what I can, really, as being a physical player, and somebody who can play with a lot of IQ, move the ball, be a screener, facilitator on offence. That’s something I definitely love to do,” Filewich said of what he wants to add to the team.

“Just bring that physicality and toughness on both sides, and as well on the boards, some things I’ve done for a while now, and I’m just hoping those are going to help the team a lot this summer.”

Sea Bears fans will have the pleasure of watching the most original element of Filewich’s game if he heads to the free-throw line: his free-throw shot. Filewich went viral on social media in February when he broke out an underhanded lob (known as a granny-style shot) from the charity stripe during a game.

The unconventional shot is something he’s worked on this year with NBA legend Rick Barry this year after struggling at the line, and he’s seen an improvement. Filewich hit 33.9 per cent of his free throws to end the season, up from the 29.6 per cent clip he was hitting for most of the year.

“It’s good. It’s good. I’ve been working on it. It’s obviously still something pretty new. I know it’s somewhere I have to get better so I’ve been working on it really hard,” said Filewich, adding he knew that it was possible his shot would bring some attention.

As for the trash talk he’s received on the court?

“To be honest, not as bad as I thought. I definitely thought it was going to be (bad), but it might still be in the future. That’s just how it goes,” he said. “There would be guys that would be waiting on a miss because they knew they couldn’t trash-talk after a make.”

Filewich understands there will be external pressure that he must deal with, such as playing in front of hostile crowds and following in the footsteps of Simon Hildebrandt and the late Chad Posthumus, fellow big men who bore the weight of being big-name hometown players to play for the Sea Bears.

Both are things he’s embracing and feels equipped to handle. There’s an extra sense of comfort being back home.

“It’s super inspirational to see that. Chad’s a guy I met with a few times last year at some practices and stuff, and he kind of just set the way, being a local guy. It kind of gives guys like me, and hopefully some others in the future, some inspiration,” Filewich said.

“It was super cool to see him play for the Sea Bears, and he meant a lot to a lot of people. He left his mark, and I’m hoping to do what I can around here to kind of make a name for myself as well.”

The Sea Bears open training camp on May 8.

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca